Vintage Looking at a 142 tomorrow

Not sure where to post this. I need some help / advice from you guys.

A 1972 142 popped up in our local Craigslist counterpart for quite a low price (1800€).
Considering they are rare like hen's teeth around here, I'm a little suspicious because it's so cheap (they usually sell for much more like >3000€)
Anyway, I got to be quick here so I want to be sure where to look especially close on the car.

It has some rusty spots on the fenders and the sills, but nothing too bad in my opinion.
Could these rusty spots hide some bigger rust patches or rust inside the sills or is this totally salvageable?
I didn't do bodywork before but I know how to weld and cut and repair panels are available at Skandix, so I'm quite confident.

It has some new parts (exhaust, fuel pump, headlights, new brake calipers all around). Inspection ran out Sep. 18 (we have annual inspection valid for 12 months, so that means it was last inspected Sep. 17 and if the rust was very bad back then, it wouldn't have gotten through I would say, knowing the very strict inspections we have here).
He said it has 82hp, so it should have the carbed B20A I believe.

Any areas or anything else I should look out for especially? Don't really know a lot about 140s

Thanks!

Here's the ad (in German) with more photos: https://www.willhaben.at/iad/gebrau...-de-luxe-144-coupe-2-0l-4-zylinder-314753895/

Good news: 140 Volvo's are as overbuilt as Volvo's ever got. SOlid.
Bad news: That's not 'honest' rust. It looks as though it was rather shoddily repaired in the past, and some of the damage is popping its way back out. So you'd have to look over the rest of the car, and underneath it, very carefully. 'Honest' rusted cars haven't had any attempts in the past to hide damage, but cars like this? You never know. Be suspicious of undercoating. Poke at things with a screwdriver. Look under the carpets, in the corners and crevices in the trunk, etc.

Sills (under the door) are common rust spots on a 140 - they are connected to the fresh air intake at the base of the windshield. When driving, fresh air is blown through this area, into the trunk. This works to reduce rust for a long time, but eventually, it brings dust and small bits of debris into that enclosed space, along with moisture, and it ends up promoting rust.

That rust all looks typical of what I see of the 140s the go up for sale in the US.
I'd say that's a great deal. Wonder why they put in that weird carpet. Definitely inspect floor pans.
Or check door seals to see if they're rotted out, which would let rain in, guaranteeing floor pan rust unless garaged
Uncracked dash is a huge plus!

Considering the price in Euros, that car would be roughly on the money in the USA, so I'd say go for it.

Body stuff can be corrected if you have the time.

That looks like a good project, if you can handle the rust repairs yourself or if you plan on driving it "as-is".
If you have to pay a shop to repair the rust, that will be big Euro.
The good news is that Skandix or VP Autoparts in Sweden (and possibly others in Europe) carry quite a bit of the repair sections you would need. The front fenders come up often enough that it would be cheaper to replace instead of patching. There is a Swedish version of Ebay, can't recall the website name though, that has used body panels on it quite regularly. You have to register in Swedish, which I can't read, but I browse it every now & then.
There are no engine pics which is worrisome. Again, all parts are available and most drivetrain (gearbox, drive shaft, & rear axle) parts are available new for the vendors listed about. The same with the front suspension.
Good luck if you get it and if you restore, make sure to start a build thread.
Steve

RUST, RUST, RUST . . . . Ten times what is obvious.

Unless you really enjoy rust repair this is going to be a painful restoration.

Is it worth it to you personally?

I think it looks awesome. But chasing the rust dragon would most likely turn it into a long term tear-down. I vote embrace wabi-sabi and just keep it simple, like this thread:

https://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=328336

Thanks for all your replies, sounds good.

I am well aware that this will turn into a project and is not just simply fixing the little obvious spots. If I am able to snag it, I want to take it apart and try my best to repair everything that I find. I don't need it to be on the road asap, so I have time to do it.

We'll see today evening, I'll bring a magnet, screwdriver and flashlight and hope it's not hiding something too bad that is not shown on the photos.

Make sure he has all 5 15x5.5 steelies. Get rid of the 740 15" wheels and go vintage

The general rule of thumb for rust is you can see about 10-20 percent of what you end up replacing.

On those cars without fender liners it's always good to check the inner fender where it attaches to the front of the body very carefully. They can rust there and weaken the whole front. Carefully check where the bottom of the inner fenders turns into the lower bracing under the front of the body.

Also no fender liners means check the inside of the front fenders around the headlight and where it attaches to the front center sheet metal.

In the rear it's like a 240 with checking the butt cheeks and bottom of the rear arches and sills. Don't forget to pull up the rug or mat in the trunk and check rear fender arches from the inside. Floor pans where the rear passenger would put their feet.
Happy shopping.

Thanks for all your useful tips. I ended up buying the car. Very happy.

I had a look at the underbody, frame rails, jack mounts, floor pans and engine crossmember and they are all in better shape than I expected.
Trunk and butt cheeks are also clean. I tried with a magnet all around the car and it stuck to all surfaces, so it seems there was no half-assed repair job done so far.

It came with all 5 original wheels in the trunk plus the spare tire even has the original cover with the Volvo logo on it!
The rubber mats are original and in very nice shape too. There are also 2 boxes in the car with lots of used and new spare parts!

The paint has seen better days but I have to replace / fix some body panels anyway, so I will likely have it resprayed (I have a buddy who can do it for cheap).
The biggest downside is that the seat covers are mostly ripped, so they have to be re-upholstered.

I also made an extensive test drive and the car drives great, shifting is smooth and without much force. Clutch seems to be good to, tried putting it in 3rd gear and engaging the clutch and it did stall, which is good.

For 1.800€ I think I hopefully made a great deal.

Sounds like a great deal to me.
That paint didn't look so terrible in the photos. The cool thing about single stage 70s paint is you can just keep wet sanding and compounding it until you hit primer. VP autoparts sells color matched rattlecan sprays too. Don't underestimate the work involved in a respray if you want it to look right and good. If I were you, I'd be compounding, welding patch panels, and primer it and spot paint it, then blend it.

I guess I'll see about the paint, but it really doesn't look very nice, it's pretty dull on most surfaces.
I have to say the colour matchs the one on my 940 pretty well

Here's a photo I took when test driving it. It even has new Hella headlights which is nice.

Looks like there are lots of good times ahead with your new 142.

If your wallet is phat with a p, go for the repaint.
If not, do not underestimate the power of a good orbital and compound. I used griots with hard-to-believe results.

Griots garage has always provided good products. I used to buy tools from them because they imported Facom, USAG, and other good euro brands.

Thanks for the photos, the before / after doesn't look too bad indeed! But the thing is that it has some rusty bubbles on the flat areas of the fenders too and the only way to get rid of them is to sand them I guess.

My friend is restoring a lot of old BMW E23's and E30's and he has a guy that is sandblasting, welding and painting the whole cars for 2.000?. I've seen the cars myself, he does a beautiful job.
Hard to say no for this kind of money, but I'll see once I start working on it.

dl242gt said:

Looks like there are lots of good times ahead with your new 142.

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Hope so!
I didn't even want a second car so I wasn't even looking intentionally and I just browsed the app in the morning before work on my phone and saw it and just called the guy because I thought there are not a lot of chances to get a 142 for this little money.

Fa182 said:

Thanks for the photos, the before / after doesn't look too bad indeed! But the thing is that it has some rusty bubbles on the flat areas of the fenders too and the only way to get rid of them is to sand them I guess.

My friend is restoring a lot of old BMW E23's and E30's and he has a guy that is sandblasting, welding and painting the whole cars for 2.000?. I've seen the cars myself, he does a beautiful job.
Hard to say no for this kind of money, but I'll see once I start working on it.

Click to expand...

Bubbles most likely means rust-through, so patching will probably be in order. There'll be bubbles on the other side too. A problem I noticed with these is that water and dirt find their way to a crevice with no escape, and the dirt remoistens and basically sits as a wet clay against the metal, rusting it from the inside. The problem areas in the 140s are well known though, and I think you'll be able to get them patched fine.